Coffee Talk: Brewing
By Danny Pinnell, SCAA Nicholas Cho, a former member of the Barista Guild of America Executive Council and SCAA Board of Directors, stopped by the office for our most recent staff meeting to lead our weekly coffee talk. Among Nick’s many contributions to SCAA, he led the development of the U.S. Brewers Cup, a competition that is now …
Coffee Talk: Sorting
By Danny Pinnell, SCAA We had the honor of hosting Portola Coffee Lab’s Jon Paul Doerr (pictured) at our last staff meeting, who graciously volunteered to come down to SCAA headquarters and make coffee for everyone in the office, bringing the coffee he plans to use in the U.S Barista Championship next month. He screen-sorted this …
Symposium 2015: A Platform for New Ideas in Coffee
By Kim Elena Ionescu, Counter Culture Coffee Symposium is our community’s annual opportunity to come together and address, collaboratively, the big issues we are all grappling with and trying to understand. Sometimes these issues emerge as threats, as coffee leaf rust did in 2013, and other times, they present us with the chance to learn …
Exploring Gender Equity in Coffee—Next Stop: Uganda!
by Kimberly Easson, Coffee Quality Institute You’ve probably been hearing a lot about gender equity and women’s empowerment, and it’s no coincidence, since the development world has been highlighting the importance of this issue in global development circles. Statistics are impressive for both the challenge and the opportunity. For example, these data are taken from the …
Coffee Talk: Brazil
By Danny Pinnell, SCAA This week’s staff meeting was wholly dedicated to The Event in April, but we (of course!) set aside some time for our weekly coffee talk, focusing on Brazil’s impact on the coffee industry. While sipping on a brew of Future Great Coffee, a Brazilian natural coffee with taste characteristics similar to …
Under One Roof: Places to be, Things to Do, People to Meet
By Tracy Allen I am honored to invite you to peruse the virtual pages of The Specialty Coffee Chronicle’s annual SCAA Event issue, where you’ll learn about the exciting things in store for our 27th Annual Exposition. The show kicks off on the evening of Thursday, April 9, with the Opening Ceremonies and SCAA Block Party, …
Starbucks Returns as Official Host Sponsor for 2015 Event
By Danny Pinnell, SCAA Excitement is building and plans are well underway for another stellar SCAA Event in Seattle this spring. As we prepare to return to this world-renowned coffee city, we are also pleased to welcome back Starbucks as the Official Host Sponsor of SCAA’s 27th Annual Exposition. “This past April, we had the honor of welcoming …
Exhibitors: The Heart & Soul of SCAA’s Annual Exposition
By Lisa Pacini For nearly 27 years now, people have come to the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s Annual Exposition, The Event, looking for new and innovative ideas. The best place to encounter these products and services on the cutting edge of specialty coffee is the show floor. New coffee brewing equipment, preparation techniques, packaging, …
Discover Ethiopia: A Portrait of a Coffee Producing Country
By Christopher Schooley Over the past few years, SCAA staff has been working closely with sponsors and volunteers in order to transform the way that we approach coffee service at the annual Exposition and other SCAA events throughout the year. The goal has been to create true specialty coffee experiences; setting a proper stage for sponsors …
Food Safety Modernization Act: What you Need to Know
By Mike Ebert Coffee production has long been pushed aside in the world of food safety. Having run roasting plants for almost 30 years, I learned early on that any health inspector, from any level–local, state or federal–did not know what to look for with coffee, thought it was a waste of their time, and …
The SCAA Event 2015: The View from the Coffeelands
By Michael Sheridan I have been living at origin and working with coffee growers since 2007. I started blogging about my work in the coffeelands on behalf of Catholic Relief Services in 2009. The next year, I began publishing an annual review of “origin content” of The SCAA Event, under the title: “The view from …
Decaffeination Processes: How do they make decaf coffee when the caffeine is in the bean?
Mental Floss recently posted a video answering a user-submitted question, “How do they make decaf coffee when the caffeine is in the bean?” Craig Benzine, “host/coffee connoisseur,” describes a method for decaffeinating coffee called “supercritical carbon dioxide decaffeination,” where green coffee beans are put in a pressure vessel and carbon dioxide is used as a …